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Bark Beetles

20 Mar 2017

To protect the trees from attack by the mountain pine beetle. The little bags contain verbenone, a chemical normally released by beetles as they lay their eggs just under the bark of a pine tree,...

Dateline NBC: Endocrine Disruptors

20 Mar 2017

Well鈥inally the Dateline piece on 鈥渉ormone disruptors,: for which I was interviewed aired on March 24th. It was not as bad as it could have been, but not as good either. In the end聽I got 58...

Greenhouse Gases and Grave Stones

20 Mar 2017

Acid rain! Many gravestones are made of marble, which dissolves in acid. This means that if rain water is acidic, every time there is some precipitation, a bit of the marble is worn away. Acid rain...

Why isn't the carbon dioxide from breathing a concern for global warming?

20 Mar 2017

The carbon dioxide we exhale does not contribute to global warming for the simple reason that we also take up an equivalent amount of carbon dioxide from the air, albeit indirectly. Everything we...

Why has California issued a health advisory about eating fried grasshoppers covered with chili - a traditional Mexican treat?

20 Mar 2017

Worry about contamination with lead! Chili powder is at the heart of Mexican cuisine and finds its way into numerous foods ranging from candies and salsa to fried grasshoppers. Unfortunately...

Nitrosamines

20 Mar 2017

I don鈥檛 think I would want to work in a rubber processing plant. Too many nitrosamines in the air, and it鈥檚 better not to inhale them. Nitrosamines after all are known carcinogens, first identified...

Ants in Our Homes

20 Mar 2017

There are various insecticides that will eliminate ants. Chlorpyrifos is probably the most effective and is available in a number of commercial versions containing 0.5% of the active ingredient. It...

Biodiesel Complications

20 Mar 2017

One thing you can count on in science is that virtually every issue is more complicated than it first seems. Take biodiesel as an example. It can be made from virtually any plant oil by reacting it...

Methyl Iodide In Strawberries

20 Mar 2017

Now it鈥檚 toxic strawberries from California! 鈥淲ill strawberry shortcake be known for causing cancer, birth defects and miscarriages,鈥 asks a widely circulating article on the web. Well, no. Not...

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